Method and apparatus for automatic paper preview

ABSTRACT

A printer and method of operating it to offer an automatic preview of the paper stock. The printer has at least one paper tray that feeds an intake into the printer. The printer would have at least two paper paths, one that causes the paper to be printed upon, the other that causes the paper to be scanned. When the paper is scanned, its image is stored in memory and a controller allows the image to be associated with the paper tray from which that paper came.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The field of this disclosure relates to printing devices, moreparticularly to a method and interface that provides a preview of thepaper in the device prior to use.

2. Background

Printing devices, including printers, copiers and multi-functionperipherals (MFPs) typically have at least one paper tray from which thedevice retrieves paper for printing. Many large networked printingdevices have several paper trays. This can cause inconvenience to users,especially if the user desires to use a specialty paper.

This inconvenience typically results from the user loading specialtypaper in one of the paper trays in the device, returning to his or herdesk and then not being able to remember or locate the tray in which thespecialty paper was loaded. The specialty paper could be letterhead,colored paper or other types.

Current printers and copiers may have small guides that allow theprinting device to receive information as to the size and orientation ofthe paper. However, this does not assist in the situation where thepaper is of a standard size but has some other special characteristic.Typically, the user interface presented to the user to print documentsincludes a specification of the paper size.

Other information is available through user interfaces. Most users arefamiliar with the ‘print preview’ or similar options in several documentcreation packages, such as Microsoft® Word®, Excel®, Access®,WordPerfect®, etc. An example of such a feature is shown in U.S. Pat.No. 5,680,629, issued Oct. 21, 1997.

Other methods of previewing print jobs are also possible. For example,one method of showing the user a representation of the printed output isdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,216, issued Oct. 5, 1999. In thisexample, the calls to the printer driver are converted to calls to adisplay driver and the results are shown on a display device viewable bythe user. Typically, control of the printing device is done through auser interface with the printer driver, familiar to most users ofpersonal computers. A more detailed discussion of printer drivers andupdating and maintaining them is shown in U.S. Pat. No 5,580,177, issuedDec. 3, 1996.

Interaction with the printer drivers typically starts with a userinterface opening and establishing a window through which the computeruser interacts with the driver to provide the output the user desires.Selections such as paper tray, including those with different sizedpapers, orientation of the printed output on the paper, number ofcopies, collation options, etc., are provided to the user. However,there is no means to offer the user information about the content of thepaper stock. The content refers to the visual characteristics of thepaper, such as color, pre-printed information like a letterhead, etc.,rather than physical characteristics such as size and orientation.

Therefore, a need exists for a method to provide information about thevisual characteristics of the paper in a printing device.

SUMMARY

One embodiment of the invention is a printer with an alternate paperpath in addition to the printing paper path. The printer would have analternate path established to pass the paper by the scanning engine toacquire an image of the paper. This path would be used when the systemsenses the removal and reinsertion of the paper tray into the system. Ifthe paper is the same as the paper in the tray already, of for otherreasons, the user could override an automatic scan of the paper. Theprinter would have a default printing path that would not cause thepaper to pass by the scanning engine, but by the print engine forcreation of an image upon the paper.

Another embodiment of the invention is a method of automaticallyacquiring an image of paper in paper tray by receiving a piece of thepaper, sending it through the scanning path, storing its image and thenassociating that image with the paper tray from which that paper came.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may be best understood by reading the detailed descriptionwith reference to the drawing(s), wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a prior art user interface for a printer driver.

FIG. 2 shows a user interface for a printer driver, in accordance withthe invention.

FIGS. 3 and 3 a show a flowchart for one embodiment of a method ofproviding information about visual characteristics of the paper in aprinting device, in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart for a first alternative embodiment of a methodof providing information about visual characteristics of the paper in aprinting device, in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 5 shows one embodiment of a user interface into which an image ofthe paper to be used in a printing device can be scanned, in accordancewith the invention.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart for a second alternative embodiment of a methodof providing information about visual characteristics of the paper in aprinting device, in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of a printing device with a scanning path forrecording information about the paper used in the printing device, inaccordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows an example of a prior art printer driver interface. Thisparticular interface was selected by selecting Print from the File menuin MS-Word®, and then selecting the Properties button on the resultingwindow 10. As can be seen, the paper size is shown in the inner window12. In this example, there was only one printer attached and thatprinter did not have multiple trays. In a networking environment, therewill be more than one printer, and several of these networked printershave several trays.

As mentioned previously, a problem can occur when a user loads aspecialty paper into one of the trays on a networked or remotelyconnected printer and then cannot remember the tray in which that paperwas loaded. As can be seen by the inner window 14, it is possible forthe user to select the tray, but that is not helpful unless the user can‘see’ the paper in the bin. There may be several trays carryingletter-sized (8½ inch by 11 inch) paper, for example, and the user maynot remember or know what tray the colored paper is in.

One embodiment of a user interface in accordance with the invention isshown in FIG. 2. The window 20 is for a specific printer, shown by theinformation line 24. However, this interface may afford the user aunique view of the paper stock in a particular tray. The area 22 wouldhave the color of the specialty paper, for example, canary yellow. Thecolor may be automatically loaded because of the selection of the papertray selected in the paper tab 26, similar to that shown in FIG. 1.

This user interface is an example of one that takes information relatedto the visual contents of the paper and provides it to the user. Again,as used here the visual contents or characteristics refer tocharacteristics of the surface of the paper, such as letterhead symbols,color, etc. These are different from the physical characteristics of thepaper such as its size or orientation.

There are several options as to how the information about the visualcharacteristics is provided to the system and/or the user. One suchmethod is shown in flowchart form in FIG. 3. In this method, theinformation to be provided to a user accessing the printing device isentered in a somewhat manual manner. A particular type of paper isloaded into the tray at 30. The person loading the paper then providesthe information at 32.

This could be done in one of several ways. After the paper is loaded,for example, the person loading the paper could access the controlinterface on the control panel of the printing device. A set of menuswould be provided with a list of specialty papers. This list could be alist of colors, letterhead formats, templates for standardized forms,etc. The loader then selects the type of paper loaded. The printingdevice then updates the user interface presented to users at 34 tryingto print from that device, to show the particular visual characteristicsfor the paper. In addition, the loader may need to designate into whichtray the paper was placed.

In an alternative example, the loader could select a piece of paper fromthe newly loaded tray and scan it with a resident scanner on a copier ormulti-function peripheral. The user interface would offer a ‘paper’option on the menu. The loader would select that option, place the paperdown on the scanning platen and the system would scan the paper. Theloader would then be offered the option of designating the tray intowhich that paper has been loaded. This would then provide theinformation about the paper at 32, and the process would continue at 34.

As will be discussed in more detail later, it is possible that theprinting device may sense the replacement of the tray and could startthe process of associating a certain paper characteristic with a certaintray. For example, the printing device may assume that the tray replacedby the loader has new paper in it and may launch the control interface.This leaves the loader only the task of designating the characteristicsof the paper in that tray.

One embodiment of a method of providing user interface updated in theprocess of FIG. 3, as well as any alternative methods, is shown in FIG.3 a. When the user accesses the printer options or set up menu, similarto that shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a window is established. The windowallows the user to interact with the printer driver in a convenientmanner. Once the window is established, the user is presented with aview of the paper in the currently selected paper tray. The view couldbe a color block to demonstrate the color of the paper, a thumbnailsketch of the paper, or a template. Templates would typically used forsuch things as forms.

The method of providing a user interface, shown by example in FIG. 3 amay apply to any methods of providing information about the visualcharacteristics of paper in a printing device. A first alternativemethod of acquiring the necessary information prior to providing it tothe user is shown in FIG. 4.

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the user has access to a scanningdevice. The scanning device may be in the same housing as the printingdevice, such as in a copier or multi-function peripheral. The scanningdevice may also be a stand-alone scanner, or a scanner attached to aworkstation on the network.

The user scans a piece of the paper to be loaded at 40. This will createan image of the paper in some form that can be transported from thescanner. The user would then access a document management softwarepackage at 42. The document management software would then allow theuser to associate the scan data, or scan, with a particular tray of theprinting device at 44. The printing device user interface would then beupdated to include the scanned image at 46. The user can then load thepaper into the device, or if it is already loaded, access the userinterface of the printing device. The user interface would now includean image of the paper in that particular tray, where the image presentedis that transported through the document management package.

An example of a user interface for a document management packages isshown in FIG. 5. Examples of these packages include SharpDesk™ and AdobeAcrobat®. Any document management application that can manage scannedimages can be used. A window 82 is established on a display device 80.The document management application window may have several types ofdocuments. The image of the scanned paper created by a process such asthat discussed above would be treated as a document by this application.For example, the image of the scanned paper 84 would be listed among theother documents by the package. This image could then be associated witha tray on a printer after the paper was loaded into the printer.

All of the above embodiments would more than likely be distributed assoftware contained upon some type of computer readable medium, such as aprinter driver. In some cases the computer would be a host computer ornetwork server that would access the software and load it into theprinter. In other instances, the computer would be the processor in theprinting device. It could download the file across the network.

In some instances, the printing device may have a scanning device in thesame system housing. This would be true for printing devices that arepart of copying systems and multi-function peripheral systems, asexamples. In this example, the scanning device is used to produce theimage, and the user interface on the system would include the ability toassociate a scan with a particular tray.

The user would remove the tray and load it with the new paper at 50.When the tray is replaced, the system would sense the replacement at 52and automatically start a paper scanning process. If the paper loaded isthe same as the paper already in the tray, the system may offer anoverride option to prevent the paper scanning process. Alternatively,the system may inquire of the user about starting the paper scanningprocess.

Once the system has launched the paper scanning process, it will take apiece of paper from the replaced tray at 54. It will then alter thepaper path, which will be discussed in more detail with reference toFIG. 7, to route the paper past the scanning device. The scanning devicewill then scan the paper at 56. The resulting information will be usedto update the user interface at 58. Once the paper scanning process iscompleted, the system will adjust operation for the paper from the trayto travel its normal printing path, rather than the scanning path.

An example of such a system with alterable paper paths 60 in accordancewith the invention is shown in FIG. 7. The paper tray 62 is loaded andreplaced. The system then senses the replacement and launches the paperscanning process, or the user launches the process manually. Prior toaltering the paper path as part of the scanning process, the paper wouldnormally be picked up from the tray and sent along path 64 past whatevermechanism is used to transfer the image to the paper. In this example,an electrophotographic printing process, the paper passes by an opticalphotoreceptor (OPC) upon which lies a toner image. This is thentransferred to the paper and fused to the paper by fusing rollers, notshown. The resulting printed paper is then sent to the output tray 78.If the user loads the same kind of paper into the tray that was alreadythere, a user override may be provided that stops the scanning process.

However, upon launching the paper scanning process, the paper path willbe changed to pass the paper by the scanning device. This can be done inseveral ways. One example of such an altered path is shown in FIG. 7.Additional pickup rollers 68 a and 68 b are mounted on moveable axlesthat allow them to be moved into place when the paper enters the paperpath 64. These will then alter the path of the paper to travel upwardsto a second set of rollers 70 a and 70 b. The paper will then beredirected to pass in front of the platen 74 by redirection rollers 72 aand 72 b. After the paper is scanned, it is passed to the output tray byrollers 76 a and 76 b. All of these rollers could be adjustable, so theycan be moved out of the way of the paper when not needed. Alternatively,none of them would move, or some of them would move while others wouldnot.

This is just one example of a printing system in which the paper fromthe output tray could be sent along an alternative path. The alternativepath would allow the scanning device in the system to scan the paper. Itshould be configured so as not to affect system performance duringoperations other than paper scanning. Additionally, the example is foran electrophotographic system, but could apply to any type of printengine.

Thus, although there has been described to this point a particularembodiment for a method and structure for a user interface that offers apreview of the paper in a printing device it is not intended that suchspecific references be considered as limitations upon the scope of thisinvention except in-so-far as set forth in the following claims.

1. A printing device, comprising: at least one paper tray, operable tohold paper used in the printing device; an intake operable to take paperfrom the paper tray; a printing paper path, wherein the printing paperpath is operable to move the paper such that it is printed upon by aprint engine; a scanning paper path, wherein the scanning paper path isoperable to move the paper such that it is scanned by a scanning engine;a memory operable to store a scanned image resulting from scanning thepaper by the scanning engine; and a controller operable to associate thescanned image with the paper tray.
 2. The printing device of claim 1,wherein the intake automatically takes paper from the tray upon removaland reinsertion of the paper tray into the printing device.
 3. Theprinting device of claim 2, wherein a user override is operable to stopthe scanning process.
 4. The printing device of claim 1, wherein thecontroller automatically associates the paper with the paper tray fromwhich the scanned paper came.
 5. A method for acquiring informationabout paper in a printing device, the method comprising: receiving apiece of paper from a paper tray; sending the piece of paper through ascanning paper path; scanning the piece of paper with a scanning engineto produce a scanned image; and associating the scanned image with thepaper tray.
 6. The method of claim 5 wherein the paper is receivedautomatically by an intake when the printing device senses removal andreinsertion of a paper tray.
 7. The method of claim 6 wherein the usercan override the automatic intake.